''Spaces'' is an album by jazz guitarist

Larry Coryell Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist, widely considered the "godfather of fusion". Alongside Gábor Szabó, he was a pioneer in melding jazz, country and rock ...

that was released in 1970 by

Vanguard Records Vanguard Recording Society is an American record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the so ...

. Coryell is accompanied by John McLaughlin on guitar,

Chick Corea Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (June 12, 1941 – February 9, 2021) was an American jazz pianist, composer, bandleader and occasional percussionist. His compositions "Spain (instrumental), Spain", "500 Miles High", "La Fiesta", "Armando's Rhumba" ...

on electric piano,

Miroslav Vitouš Miroslav Ladislav Vitouš (born 6 December 1947) is a Czech jazz bassist. He is known as a founding member of the ensemble Weather Report, and for working as a bandleader and alongside Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette and others. Biography E ...

on bass, and

Billy Cobham William Emanuel Cobham Jr. (born May 16, 1944) is a Panamanian–American jazz drummer who came to prominence in the late 1960s and early 1970s with trumpeter Miles Davis and then with the Mahavishnu Orchestra. He was inducted into the '' Mode ...

on drums. The album was produced by Daniel Weiss and engineered by David Baker and Paul Berkowitz. The album is sometimes considered to have started the

jazz fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

genre. All of the participating musicians went on to form prominent fusion bands in the 1970s: McLaughlin and Cobham co-founded

Mahavishnu Orchestra The Mahavishnu Orchestra was a jazz fusion band formed in New York City in 1971, led by English guitarist John McLaughlin (musician), John McLaughlin. The group underwent several line-up changes throughout its history across its two periods of a ...

, Corea founded

Return to Forever Return to Forever was an American jazz fusion band that was founded by pianist Chick Corea in 1972. The band has had many members, with the only consistent bandmate of Corea's being bassist Stanley Clarke. Along with Weather Report, The Headhun ...

, Vitouš formed

Weather Report Weather Report was an American jazz fusion band active from 1970 to 1986. The band was founded in 1970 by Austrian keyboardist Joe Zawinul, American saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Czech bassist Miroslav Vitouš, American drummer Alphonse Mouzon a ...

(with

Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (August 25, 1933 – March 2, 2023) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer and bandleader. Shorter came to mainstream prominence in 1959 upon joining Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, for whom he eventually became the primary comp ...

and

Joe Zawinul Josef Erich Zawinul ( '; 7 July 1932 – 11 September 2007) was an Austrian jazz and jazz fusion keyboardist and composer. First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with Miles Davis and to bec ...

), and Coryell himself went on to start his own group The Eleventh House in 1972.

The Sessions

“The first day was strange”, said Coryell of the sessions, “because Chick and Billy and John had just come from sessions with Miles. They had definitely been taking some different approaches to the music at those sessions, because when I threw down the first piece, “Tyrone” by Larry Young, the cats did not play it straight. They were all going into outer space…almost nothing we played that first day made the cut: it seems as if we got most of the music that went on the record on the second day. It just took a while to get comfortable with each other and the material…''Spaces'' did not do that great upon initial release, but when Vanguard reissued it a few years later, it sold 250,000 copies. Not bad for a record that sounded very little like traditional jazz and nothing like rock.” Two discarded tracks from the two-day ''Spaces'' sessions, ‘Tyrone’ and ‘Planet End’ were released on '' Planet End'' in 1975, along with contemporary material by Coryell's then-current band (The Eleventh House). (From the book ''Bathed In Lightning'' by Colin Harper _ Jawbone Press 2014)

Track listing

Personnel

– guitar * John McLaughlin – guitar (1,2,4,5) *

– electric piano (5) *

– double bass (1,3,4,5) *

– drums (1,3,4,5) Production * Dave Baker – engineer, mixing * Paul Berkowitz – assistant * Daniel Weiss – producer

References

1970 albums Larry Coryell albums Vanguard Records albums {{1970s-jazz-album-stub